the top muslim cleric in australia recently gave a speech that is causing outrage. he blamed “imodestly” dressed women for rape saying that it was 90% their fault and likening uncovered women to uncovered meat. needless to say that folks are emotional.

on the today show it was mentioned in passing that there appears to be outrage within the muslim community there as well – not just outside of it. and i can’t help but hope that internal outrage is given the chance to speak to make sure people don’t lump all muslims into one voice.

as to his argument…i’ve heard it before. a friend of mine from university had converted and we debated frequently various ideas from politics to religion. one day he tried to get me on board with dressing 3/4ths covered.

my retort was then and is now, that if man is to claim himself (and this sense i do mean himself) a free willed and thinking being he cannot claim not to have control over his actions. people are faced every day with opportunities to do right and to do wrong…to do what they believe or to turn away. whether it be to eat pork or do drugs or have sex before marriage or to give to charity…they are all choices humans are equipped to make.

and when i fall short i am only permitted to blame others in a court of law. when it comes to me and God, well blame falls away and only i’m left standing.

yesterday S and i got into a conversation about halal meat. there are different interpretations of halal and with so many muslims from so many different countries and cultures here it is easy to wonder how so many opinions on such a seemingly simple topic can emerge.

so S got online and began looking for information and was pleased with the information he found.

for my part, this was simply further proof that in religion it is important to question not your God but the people who claim to speak for your God. interpretation in religion has been used to justify slavery and wars…why not to justify rape? not because it is written in islam or christianity but becuase a person is not God and faith is personal.

noam chomsky said in understanding power,

usually you find out what you think by interaction with people, otherwise you don’t know what you think – you just hear something, and maybe you accept it, or you don’t pay any attention to it, or something like that…and you learn by trying out ideas and hearing reactions to them, and hearing what other people have to say about thetopic…

i mention this because some people use fear as a tool/weapon. “if you had more faith you would believe what i’m saying”. but my parents’ pastour used to talk about questioning not as detriment to faith but to strengthener of faith. i wish people would ask questions, read their holy books, pray…for themselves, not because someone told them to.

simply following instructions can get you into a lot of trouble, just ask germany.